Top court gets brief on Pleasant Grove tablets

The American Center for Law and Justice announced Monday it has filed its opening brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Pleasant Grove over its display of the Ten Commandments in a city park.

Last March, the country's highest court agreed to hear the case of Pleasant Grove vs. Summum on the issue of whether the Salt Lake City-based religious group should be allowed to erect its own monument espousing the group's "Seven Aphorisms" next to the Ten Commandments display. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Utah federal judge's decision that the city must open its park to other such monuments or ban them altogether.

The ACLJ has argued to the Supreme Court that the Ten Commandments display, which was donated to the city decades ago by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, should be considered government speech rather than private speech. Under existing law, government speech is limited, while private speech opens a forum requiring access from a variety of walks of life.

The top court's ruling could impact religious-based displays in city parks across the country.